The decision last month to free al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds — he is suffering from terminal pancreatic cancer — also fueled questions about whether Britain was putting trade before the bombing victims.
Brown insists the decision was made by independent Scottish authorities, but media have suggested otherwise.
On Friday, BP said it had warned British officials to quickly seal a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya. Such a deal would have allowed al-Megrahi to serve out his sentence in Libya, though BP said it did not refer specifically to al-Megrahi’s case.
Justice Minister Jack Straw said on Saturday that trade — particularly the BP oil deal — had been “a very big part” of the 2007 negotiations that led to the prisoner deal.
Tripoli will resist demands for compensation from IRA victims, Qaddafi’s son said yesterday.
Seif al-Islam told Britain’s Sky News television that any claims for compensation over Libya’s supply of explosives to the IRA would be a matter for “the courts”.
Islam said: “Anyone can knock on our door. You go to the court. They have their lawyers. We have our lawyers.”
Asked if his answer to the compensation demand would be “no,” he replied: “Of course.”
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